Conveyer.



c. L. VAN WERT.

GONVEYER APPLICATION FILED JUNE 8, 1910.

Patented Aug.

2 m5 Q. m mr h WITNESSES IIVVEAITOR Ear1CZ.VZIn Weft.

- fication.

EARL C. L. VAN WEB/1, OF VALHALLA, NEW YORK.

GONVEYER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

T all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EARL C. L. VAN VVnRr, a citizen of the United States, residing at Valhalla, in the county of Wcstchester and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Conveyers, of which the following is a. speci- My invention relates particularly to what are generally known as belt conveyers for inoving materials of various kinds.

When.'the material to be conveyed is of a granulated or finely divided nature the pose of the material.

amount which can be carried by a belt is limited by the tendency of the material to spread out and fall over the edge of the belt. The limit is determined by the angle of re- In order to increase thecapacity of a given width of belt it is common practice to raise the'edges of the belt by. means of inclined rollers so that the ,b elt; takes the form of a trough These rollers are commonly termed troughing idlers. The ordinary troughed belt will carry material horizontally and up any in cline to about 20. 'When it is desired to carry material up an angle greater than 20 it is necessary to employ what is commonly termed a bucket conveyer, that is, a belt having. a series of buckets. These bucketconveyers are however seldom if ever used for carrying material horizontally. If material is to be carried horizontally and also elerated to a considerable distance it is customaryto employ a troughed-belt conveyer for carrying the material horizontally. From this troughed belt the material is emptied into a hopper or boot from which it is elevated by means of a bucket-conveyer.

It is the principal object of my invention to combine the advantages of the bucket and trough conveyer in a single structure .so that the material when deposited upon the conveyer can be transported horizontally as well as upv a steep incline.

Another object is to maintain a belt in a .uniform ,troughed' condition between the drive pulleys and prevent the edges of the belt from sagging,

Another object is to do away with the necessity of troughing idlers.

. ing idlers.

The invention consists in the combination of a belt with a special form of buckets 1Lwlhiph for convenience may be called flexi- The principles will. be understood from the following specification and the accompanying drawing.

Figure 1, is a diagrammatic side view of a conveyer embodying the principles of my invention. Fig. 2, 1s a plan view of a fragment of 'a conveyer of my invention the belt being fiat, and the buckets extended. Fig. 3, is a transverse sectional view of the same. Fig. 4, isa transverse sectional view of the conveyer inits troughed condition and show- Fig. 5, is a vertical sectional view of-an inclined portion of the conveyer on a somewhat larger scale.

The reference numeral 1 indicates the distributing hopper from which material is to be conveyed to the receiving hopper 2.

3 is a horizontal portion of the conveyer and 4 the inclined portion. The conveyer runs around drums or pulleys such as'5 and 6 at opposite ends either or both of which may supply driving power. At the point where the conveyer'begins to rise, a. pair of disk-like pulleys or guides such as 7, 7 are employed at the upper or carrying face of the conveyer and an idler such as 8 at the lower part of the conveyer. Any suitable number of idlers such as 9, 10 andll may be employed at the necessary points according to the necessity of the case. Through- .out most of its extent the conveyer is troughed but it is allowed to flatten as at 13 where it passes the guide disks 7, 7, the idlsr 8 and the driving drumsor pulleys 5 an 6.

The body or bel-t portion of the conveyer may be of any suitable character with sufficient flexibility to permit the belt to be troughed asshown in Fig. 4. Attached to the outer surface of the belt.in any suitable manner as for instance, by riveting, are the buckets. In its preferred form each bucket is made up of three portions, a central member 14 and two lateral members 15 and 16which over-lap the edges of the central member ex-.

Patented Aug. 1, 1911'. Application filed June a, 1910. Serial No. 565,686.

space so as to allow the side portions of the belt to be bent-up into the troughed form of Fig. 4. From this it will be seen that the side members 15 and 16 are in a sense hinged relative to the central member 14, the axis of the hinged action being in the plane of the belt and longitudinally thereof at the an gles of the trough. I prefer to limit the relative swinging action by suitable means as for instance a pin and slot connection such as 17 and l I also prefer to provide means for drawing the outer ends of the lateral members 15 and 16 together such for instance as a spring 19. The side members may be provided with projections as shown in Fig, 3 to which the ends of the spring are attached in any suitable manner. By placing the spring 19 above the top of the central member'la I avoid difficulties which might occur ifthe spring were located lower down where the material being conveyed rests against the buckets. The spring 19 aut0- matically holds the conveyor in a troughed condition except when the conveyer passes around-thedriving drums or pulleys and the guide-disks 7, 7 at which times the spring yields sufliciently to permit the belt to flatten out and the bucket to extend laterally as shown in Fig. 3. As soon as the belt has passed the guide disks or driving pulleys the spring 19 will bring the belt immediately into its troughed condition.

If desired, lateral guide devices or idlers such as 20, QO-may be employed as is some times done with troughed conveyers to prevent lateral displacement. If desired my conveyer may be used with an ordinary set of pulleys and idlers including troughing idlers and in this case the springs 19, 19, if used, would relieve the troughing idlers of most of the bearing pressure. Some of the advantages of my invention would be had even if the springs were omitted.

It will also be obvious that changes in the style and design of the buckets may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of my invention.

The advantages of the features above pointed out will be apparent to those skilled in this art.

What I claim'is:

l. A conveyer comprising a belt, laterally flexible buckets carried thereby and means carried by the' belt for normally holding the belt in a troughed condition and the buckets contracted.

2. In a conveyer, a belt, a series of buckets carried thereby each consisting of a plurality of parts arranged side by side across the belt and over-lapping one another at all times' 3. In a conveyer, belt, a series of buckets carried thereby each consisting of a pluraleeaaie ity of parts arranged side by side across the belt and overla )ping one another and interengaging means carried by the parts of a bucket for limiting the relative swinging motion of said parts.

4. In a conveyer, a belt, a plurality of buckets carried thereby each consisting of a plurality of parts arranged side by side across the belt and means carried by the belt for drawing the outer parts toward .each other and holding the conveyer in a troughed condition.

5.,In a conveyer, a belt, a series of buckets carried thereby each consisting of a pluralityof parts arranged side by side across the belt and a spring connecting said parts tending to trough the belt.

6. In a conveyer, a belt, a series of buckets carried thereby each consisting of a plurality of parts arranged side by side across'the belt andover-lapping each other and capable of relative transverse movement and a pin and slot connection. between said, parts for -limiting the relative motion,

7. In a conveyer, a belt, a series of buckets carried thereby each-consisting of a plurality of parts arranged side by side across the belt and over-lapping each other and a spring for drawing the outer parts toward each other.

8. A conveyer comprising a belt, suitable driving, guiding and idler pulleys for maintaining a part of the belt substantiallyhorizontal and a part of the belt'at a steep inclination relative thereto, a series of laterally flexible buckets carried by said belt and extending across the same substantially from one side to the other and means carried by said .belt for maintaining said belt in a troughed condition and said buckets contracted independently of the load.

9. A conveyer comprising a flexible belt, a bucket secured thereto and consisting of acentral' member and two side members adapted to extend and contract to allow the belt to lie flat or be troughed and interengaging means carried by said members to limit the movement of the side members relative to the central member.

10. In a conveyer, a belt, means carried by said belt including a spring for troughing the belt. 4 r

11. In *a conveyer, a belt, segmental buckets carried thereby and springs for pulling the segments of the buckets together and troughing the belt.

12. In a conveyer, a belt, and means secured to'the belt on its load-carrying face for bending said belt into trough-shaped form but allowing the belt to flatten out.

13. In a conveyer, a belt, pulleys therefor around which the belt passes substantially flat and means carried by said belt independent of the load for automatically 15. In a conveyer, a belt, segmental bucktroughing said belt .When between the pill: ets carried thereby and means connecting 10 leys. I b v 1 y b With said buckets fort-roughing said belt.

14. In a conveyer, a elt, p111 eys t ere: T

5 for, buckets car ried by said belt and means EARL WERT' connecting with said buckets for troughing Witnesses: the belt but permitting the belt to pass fiat ARTHUR J. TAYLQR, I around said pulleys. CHARLES O. Tnssm'n. 

